1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to methods for transferring messages over a distributed communication network and, in particular, to methods for the secure and timely delivery of large messages over a distributed communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The successful transfer of large time-sensitive messages between application programs requires a reliable, secure and timely transfer method and infrastructure. Conventional approaches to providing a reliable message transfer method and infrastructure include dedicated T1 lines, Virtual Area Networks (VANs) and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). These approaches, however, are slow, cumbersome and/or expensive.
TCP-IP protocol was developed to reliably transfer messages between application programs. However, recovery from message delivery failures is complicated in the TCP-IP protocol due to the need to contact the application program, from which the message originated, in order to recover and resend the entire message.
Furthermore, the secure and timely transfer of relatively large messages (e.g., messages greater than 1 gigabyte in size) using conventional methods and infrastructure presents at least two significant difficulties that are unnoticed or disregarded when transferring relatively small messages. First, if such relatively large messages are placed in a buffer (i.e., “buffered”) before being encrypted for secure transfer, the transfer is delayed (in other words, latency is increased) and resource requirements for both the sending and receiving hardware and software are increased. Second, if such relatively large messages are “streamed” between a sending application program and a receiving application program (i.e., the individual message bytes are transferred as soon as they become available from the sending application program), the ability to recover from message transfer errors is significantly degraded.
Methods providing for the reliable transfer of messages on a distributed communication network (e.g., the Internet) that involve simultaneous transfer of multiple copies of a message along alternate message paths have been described (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/740,521, filed Dec. 18, 2000, entitled “System and for Handling Information and Information Transfers in a Computer Network” and U.S. patent and application Ser. No. 09/997,839, filed Nov. 29, 2001, entitled “Method for Transferring Messages Along Optimally Redundant Communication Paths in a Distributed Communication Network”, both of which are hereby fully incorporated by reference for all purposes. However, these methods do not address the issue of securely and reliably transferring a large message in a very timely manner (i.e., securely and reliably transferring a large message with low latency and without the need for the entire message to be resent in case of transient delivery failures).
Still needed in the field, therefore, is a timely method for transferring large messages across a distributed communication network. The method should also provide for the secure and reliable transfer of large messages across a distributed communication network.